UNION BEACH — For the rest of the country, the house at 705 Front St. symbolizes the destruction that superstorm Sandy wrought, even appearing on the cover of Newsweek.

Co-owners Barbara and Constantine Zois say they have a different purpose in mind for the home, which Sandy literally tore in half: as a symbol of rebirth and hope for hard-hit Union Beach.

“This house is going to come back,” said Barbara Zois, 70. “It’s been a part of Union Beach since 1855, and that’s not going to stop.”

The siblings, who did not live in the home, say they are talking with architects to try to understand how the structure can be salvaged. It likely will come down to money, Constantine Zois said.

“In life, practically anything is fixable,” said Zois, 75. “It’s just a matter of how much you want to spend.”

Union Beach, a working-class enclave on Raritan Bay, was particularly hard hit by Sandy. Many of the bungalows near the water’s edge are simply not there anymore. Along the streets near the Zois’ home, concrete stoops are often the only part of a home still attached to the ground.

Standing beneath the Zois home, it can be difficult to comprehend how even a portion of the house remains standing: most of its northern half is gone, with only the roof hanging precariously overhead.

The family has no idea where the sofa and other household items on the ground floor washed up. Yet an overcoat and a dress remain on their hangers in one of the exposed upstairs bedrooms, swirling around in the wind more than a month after the storm passed.

Constantine Zois believes it was Sandy’s winds, not its surge, which led to only a portion of the house being left behind. His theory is that the wind exerted strong pressure on the house’s roof, compromising the structure below.

Zois knows a thing or two about the weather: He is a meteorologist.

“As a meteorologist, I like to feel close to the elements,” said Zois, a professor at Kean University. “This time, the elements came and bit me.”

The irony of a meteorologist losing a house to a storm is not lost on Zois, he said. When he and his sister were considering whether to buy the house in 1994, Zois said he looked at Raritan Bay lapping peacefully at the property’s edge and thought of all the ways that things could go wrong.

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“I was aware of the possibility of this happening,” Zois said. “But then again, this house had stood against every major storm and hurricane since 1855.”

Ultimately, emotion trumped scientific logic: ever since they had vacationed in Union Beach as children during the 1940s, their mother had dreamed of one day owning the house that locals call the Princess Cottage, said Barbara Zois, a teacher.

At one point when they were children, it even went on the market, she said. But the $10,000 price tag seemed out of reach to the family, and so they watched someone else move in.

“We’ve always loved her,” said Barbara Zois, referring to the house. “It’s so painful to see her in this condition.”

The love affair continued in the next generation of the Zois family. Only six months before Sandy arrived, Constantine Zois’ son, Jonathan, moved into the house with his girlfriend.

“I wanted to spend the rest of my life there,” said Jonathan Zois, 34, who sells cars. “I would get up every morning and look through the back window onto the bay. It was so pretty, so peaceful.”

Rebuilding the house likely will mean having to comply with updated Federal Emergency Management Agency flood standards for the minimum height off the ground a home’s first floor must be. FEMA anticipates releasing preliminary figures for the region this week, with a public review period to follow before a final decision is reached.

While homes with minor damage from Sandy would not have to comply with the new elevation figures, new structures or those requiring significant repairs likely would, FEMA officials said last week.

Constantine Zois said he is not deterred by what may seem like a impossible task to rebuild. He and his sister did not have flood insurance, she said.

“We have very deep emotional bonds with Union Beach, and with this house,” he said. “We want to serve as an inspiration to others that a storm cannot be allowed to sever those ties.”